Book 4 Chapter 1

Rally of the Bingfeng Film Guardians

Like dots on jet-black silk,

A cluster of stars scattered across a dizzying sky.

Even the moon, hanging in the sky, is half dark.

A shapeless half-moon night.

I'd rather rely on the stars than the dim moonlight.

There was a moving herd.

They were streaming into a building in the far corner of the Heavenly Academy. It was late at night, well past the school's prescribed bedtime, but they were boldly and brazenly breaking the rules, each with a white bandana wrapped around their foreheads. The faint glow of their white robes, reflected in the light of the half-moon, made it possible for them to recognize each other. Not just for today's gathering, but for all of their events, the white cloth on their foreheads was a sign and a promise.

Located on a street with a high concentration of clubs, the building was spacious, but as soon as about a hundred people crammed into the interior, the space was limited. The building was cramped with people.

At the top of the dais in the center of the building, a single portrait was stuck to the podium with care and attention, and everyone was staring at it with a mixture of wishes, hopes, emotions, and desires. As if they were in a trance…….

The subject of the portrait, perched on a width of the finest silk, without a stain, a blemish, or the slightest wrinkle, was a woman of such beauty that it was deeply doubtful whether she was a human being of the same race as them, or a fairy lost in the heavens and wandering the earth, a being that could only be defined as the epitome of exquisite beauty.

If Bi Ryuyeon had seen this picture (she's not here, of course), she would have exclaimed in amazement, "Huh? That woman!"

She was the victim of a theft that the suspect, Bi Ryuyeon, had met just a week earlier at a pavilion named Unhyangjeong (蕓香亭), meaning "the place where the scent of clouds lingers," which she had stumbled upon while wandering aimlessly through the Tianmu Academy. On that day she had been robbed by Bi Ryuyeon of one thing of great value, albeit not of the monetary and material type, which, if the perpetrator had been a shameless human being with a triple quadruple layer of iron plates on his face, might have dared to claim, "It's not even worn out." It had happened so unexpectedly that she had not been able to defend herself.

Now a handsome young man, the leader of the assembled White Guards, stood on the dais with his back to the portrait. His once splendid and colorful hair had somehow disappeared, and his face was pale and haggard. The young man's face was handsome enough to shake the hearts of most women with a single smile, but his complexion was pale as a sheet due to the unexpected events of a week ago and the immense mental and physical suffering he had endured since then.

His precious right hand, the one that was supposed to hold the sword and wield the sword qi, was for some reason wrapped in a white bandage, and it was still uncomfortable to move. If Bi Ryuyeon had seen him, she would have asked, "I've seen you around a lot, who are you?" He was none other than the Sun Wind Sword Dragon Wei Zichen.

Today's meeting wasn't supposed to be a regular one, but it had been called at short notice due to the events at Yun Xiangzheng that had sent the entire Heavenly Guild into a whirlwind of panic. The truth of what had happened a week ago had only reached the ears of a select few, and was not widely known. The people gathered here today are those few (but isn't it too many to call them a few if they can fill a building?)

A week ago, shortly after the theft of the girl's lips by Bi Ryuyeon, one of the guards who heard the news was shaken with a heart-wrenching rage and lamented, "It's a shame.

"My two ears have ceased to function as of today and are of no further use. I have heard things that I should not hear now. The two ears that failed to hear it are no longer of any use to me."

It was a terrible feeling, he recalled, with the blood rushing through his body from anger and his heart threatening to burst.

Another exclaimed, "That is an absolute lie; such a thing could not have happened to our goddess!" and in his anguish he pierced his left hand with a needle and bit his lip until it bled, for he could not bear to harm his right hand, which held the sword.

There were those who gouged out their eyes until the whites were visible and screamed that they would rip off their own ears, and there were the radicals who were quick to accuse the messenger of libel or spreading falsehoods.

Many others screamed with uncontrollable rage, and were raving and livid. If they could, they would have cut off their own ears or shredded their eardrums to prevent them from hearing the rumors. Luckily, no lives were lost, but the impact of the event was devastating.

If this was the reaction of a member of the peerage who had only heard the words, then the anger of the only witness at that time, and the captain of the Ice Peak Movie Guard, the Sun Wind Sword Dragon Wei Zichen, could only be imagined. He was so filled with unfathomable anger, horror, despair, and shame, rising up from the bottomless abyss, that he wanted to stab himself in the eyes and blind himself. Even then, he wanted to deny what he had witnessed and suffered; his feelings for her were so immense. But he could not do it, for there was still one thing he had to do. That is, to thoroughly punish, punish, and avenge the evil one, and that vengeance is one of the reasons for today's meeting.

The white knights who had gone without sleep at this ambitious hour, who had so casually disregarded the rules of the school, were members of her guards. They were ordinary students, no different from any other, but they were willing to drop everything for one thing: the worship of a transcendent being who could make them throw everything away. They worshiped a transcendent being who made it possible for them to let go of everything. A group of fanatics who would lay down their lives to win her smile, if only for once. A bunch of lunatics who would stop at nothing to win her love. They called themselves the Bing Bong Movie Guards. And the promoter of that group of fanatics was none other than the Sun Wind Sword Dragon Wei Zichen.

Wei Zichen, the Windblade Dragon. No one could deny that he had risen through the ranks due to his exceptional martial prowess, intelligence, talent, and qualifications. His abilities were so outstanding that he stood out from the rest of the academy. However, his life path was forced to change course when Ice White Peak Na Yerin entered the Heavenly Martial Academy. The reason was that he was completely mesmerized by the beauty of the newcomer.

Her exquisite beauty was the stuff of divine artistry, and she gave birth to countless love fever patients. But the ardent courtship of countless young men was not enough to move her icy heart. With her mind firmly closed, she declared that she had no intention of interacting with anyone of the opposite sex. The colder her response was, the more her following grew.

There were so many eyes on her. Wei Zichen decided to put up a shield. That was the idea behind the creation of the Bingfeng Film Guards, a pro-government organization. It's hard to imagine why a person of Wei Jichen's stature would have felt the need to arbitrarily form a group that she didn't even want to be a part of.

Up until a week ago, as the captain of the Bingfeng Movie Guard, or Bingfeng Guard for short, he had been carrying a string of healthy young men on his back in an ardent courtship of love, but the events of a week ago had scarred him mentally and physically beyond repair. He couldn't shake the feeling that he had failed to protect her.

He couldn't believe it, didn't want to believe it, couldn't believe that he'd suffered such a crushing, humiliating defeat at the hands of a nameless, faceless rookie officer. His sky-high pride wouldn't allow him to admit it. But the snake-slithering wound on his right arm, still vivid, forced him to admit it. A wound inflicted by him and no one else…… while being thoroughly humiliated…….

Wei Zichen had never imagined that there would be someone who could match him, one of the Nine Dragons of the Seven Peaks of the Nine Dragons. The blades of shame, lust, and anger had sliced his heart to pieces, and naturally, he clutched at his deeply wounded heart and vowed revenge. He was a filth that must not be allowed to exist, that must be removed.

Uniformly wearing white robes on their foreheads that might have been appropriate had the word love been written in large letters in the middle of them, the reason for their gathering was to impeach and chastise a person. The party who had incurred the wrath of the whole community by committing the great sin of blasphemy against their goddess was not present. They all lamented that if he had been seen, they would have immediately severed his limbs, disemboweled him, boiled him in a pot of water, skinned him, and cut his body into thirty-six pieces. Their anger was intense. When the portrait of Ice-Black Peak Na Yerin was removed from behind the dais at Wei Zichen's command, regret appeared in everyone's eyes.

And when a new portrait was posted that resembled a bounty flyer, uncontrollable anger and hatred once again erupted from everyone's eyes. The subject of the wanted portrait was none other than Bi Ryuyeon.

When Bi Ryuyeon's damned face appeared, the brush of emotion dipped into the ink of anger, hatred, and murder, etching it with a single stroke into everyone's pupils and hearts. Like an imprint that would never be erased.

When the process of recognizing the object of their hatred was complete, all those assembled drew their weapons as if by promise, and the momentum was ferocious. The rage, hatred, and killing intent that emanated from their swords were united, and they tore the portrait of Bi Ryuyeon into a thousand pieces. Each line of the sword, each piece of the torn portrait, contained their hatred and anger. Their common goal was to make the portrait look exactly like the real thing.

"Dead! Dead! Dead! Dead! Dead! Dead! Dead! Dead!"

All of them shouted in a frenzy, raising their right arms in the air, their howling voices filled with murderous intent. It would have been unthinkable for anyone with a normal, sane, and healthy mindset, but they were already paralyzed. She had become their greatest accomplishment since the moment she had made the accident without thinking about it a week ago. And that fact will not change until she is eradicated from this world.

As the portrait was torn to shreds by their hatred, falling in flurries like snow, Wei Zichen stood and cried out. It was the voice of sedition.

"Who are our enemies who deserve to be hated?"

"Bi Ryuyeon! Bi Ryuyeon!"

Like fanatics, the crowd clapped their hands in unison and shouted.

"Who is the evil that will not be recognized for its existence in this world?"

"Bi Ryuyeon! Bi Ryuyeon!"

"Who is our greatest enemy?"

The word Heavenly Spirit did not come out of their mouths where it should have. The most publicized name in the black and white transfer, the name of the Heavenly Spirit, was being ignored at this moment.

"Bi Ryuyeon! Bi Ryuyeon!"

To them, she was the one person they wouldn't mind chewing up and swallowing.

"Yes, comrades! Let him see for himself the dire consequences of tampering with our sacred goddess. You wouldn't be cool with being thrown into the Black Lair of the Thousand Spirits if you…… dared to lay those filthy lips…… on our NaSojae!"

Wei Zichen was overcome with emotion and couldn't stop talking. It had been an extremely powerful shock to him and the other fifty Ice Peak Film Guardians. The fact that he hadn't been able to stop the evil deed even though he had been there was still etched in his heart with a thousand bitter memories.

Today's gathering was to rid the world of the evil Bi Ryuyeon, the perpetrator and cause of the incident. Their common rage and hatred was focused solely on Bi Ryuyeon. The enormous Yin Yin (陰念: evil thoughts or wishes) gathered here spewed out a vast and varied array of murderous plans in seconds. Each and every one of them was a tempting proposition. They were so varied that it was hard to choose just one. They all came to believe that the execution of Bi Ryuyeon was the will of the heavens.

Hundreds of murderous plans for a single human being ran through their heads, spewing out of their mouths with specific methods. But there was no one in the room who was bold enough to carry out their conceived plans. For now, they could only raise their voices in frustration. As the night wore on, the murderous fervor grew hotter and hotter.

"Phew, this is getting difficult……."

He was three times the size of the others and four times heavier, but no one seemed to mind his presence.

Unaware of the existence of a group united in extreme anger and targeting her as the object of their resentment, Bi Ryuyeon, on the other hand, was doing something that would have caused her guards to curse and swear if they knew about it: conducting a background check on the man whose lips she had stolen.

He inadvertently left the scene without even asking her name, leaving Bi Ryuyeon, who knew nothing about Tian Guan, to find a way to satisfy her curiosity elsewhere, an act that threw cold water on the SS's efforts to keep her out of a 300-meter radius around her.

It was surprisingly simple, and it saved him the trouble of searching. Believing that the Society could not possibly know of such a beautiful girl, Bi Ryuyeon decided to try it out, trusting in Bi Yantai's perverse tendencies and dark desires, as well as the Society's track record.

"Wow, that's easy to figure out other than, "Are you sure?""

The results were as expected. With only a few words of explanation, the date, time, and location of her presence that day was enough to give him a detailed description of the woman he had been in contact with.

Moreover, the events of a week ago had become quite publicized due to the sudden and unexplained injury of one of the Heavenly Nine Dragons, Wei Zichen, so the information was more readily available.

"So that's why her name in the 'clove cloud' is Na Yerin."

"I see. The person who was on the Yun Xiang Boat at that time a week ago was the Bing Bai Peak Na Yerin Sojae, but how do you know her?"

Bi Yantai asked, his eyes suddenly glowing with a darkness. No matter how she thought about it, she wasn't in a position to know her. Even if she had been tricky to get to, she wouldn't have come up with this excuse.

"It's just a coincidence. Why?"

Bi Ryuyeon smiled and shrugged it off.

"No, it's just that strange rumors keep tickling my ears……."

With that, she fumbled and pulled something out of a box. With a snap, the picture unfolded in front of her eyes, and it was the very image of her that she had met.

"Yes, it's her, but it looks exactly the same."

The portrait was so marvelous that even Bi Ryuyeon, who had no great skill in painting, could not help but admire it. Even in the painting, her mysterious, neat, and virtuous demeanor had not faded at all. The portrait reproduced her figure perfectly on a single sheet of paper, as if she did not exist in this world. Like a miracle…….

At first glance, it was clear that the portrait had been created with great care. I could feel the frightening sincerity and dedication in every single line. What kind of thoughts and mental state was the artist in? It was definitely not a painting that could have been created in a sane state.

"Isn't it amazing, the final masterpiece of a master painter, Major Hua!"

The creator of the painting, Major Hua, was a master portraitist with a heavenly talent, so remarkable that his handwriting was said to contain the very soul of his subjects. He had originally come here to paint a portrait of her, commissioned by the Bingfeng Film Guard, her personal guard, with a hefty reward in store, but the story took a strange turn.

After having the honor of meeting her face-to-face, Major Hua fell in love with her at first sight, and began to suffer from the dreaded sergeant's disease. His illness was so severe that he could barely hold a brush, let alone paint, and his work would never be completed. He had met hundreds of beautiful women in his life, but he had never been mesmerized by a subject before. The impact was so great that it shook his soul.

One day he suddenly picked up his brush again and stood in front of the canvas. He abandoned food and drink, forgot sleep and rest, and worked like a madman on the painting. After seven days and nights of madness, he finished the portrait. It was the culmination of his skill, labor, and spirit. But alas, it was unfinished.

She worked frantically to complete the painting with all the passion she could muster, but only her pupils were left unfinished, a white space in the margin. He despaired and felt ashamed of his inadequacies, for he felt that he lacked the skill to make the final touch, which should have been called a hua feng point, not a hua yong point. He was frantically tormented that he could not express the abyssal universe in her eyes with the tip of his brush. Then he began to swing the brush frantically again. Indelible madness flowed and passed through his eyes as he unconsciously wielded the brush.

After more than a month of madness, he finally managed to capture the two dots that fulfilled his wish. From the moment the two eyes of the phoenix, which he considered to be the most beautiful in the world, were painted, it was no longer a painting; it was a living creature, exuding magic, a magic that could mesmerize a man by itself. It was a marvel of human craftsmanship, and by then he had lost his mind.

Finally, completely losing himself, he frantically swung his brush to complete her pupils and, despite everyone's admiration, he was not satisfied and declared himself dead. Even the work, which was hailed as a miracle, did not satisfy him. He declared that nothing in the world was more beautiful than this, that he could no longer paint anything more beautiful, and that he had burned his soul to the bone to complete it, and he disappeared into obscurity. And so he disappeared, leaving behind a legend.

Many searched for the portrait, the last and best painting he ever completed, but no one could find it, a one-of-a-kind masterpiece that captured her as if she were alive, her mystery indescribable. No wonder everyone's eyes lit up.

In particular, her personal guard, the Bingbong Guard, searched and searched and searched, but could not find it. The legendary portrait, which no one has found and is still looking for, now hangs preciously on one of the walls of the Association.

The value of the painting would have been enormous, and he wondered what he could have done to keep it.

Bi Ryuyeon was currently looking through the data that the Association had collected on Na Yerin. As she perused the data, she suddenly spoke to Bi Yantai.

"But I don't have as much material as I thought I did."

It was true, there was a dearth of material on her compared to others, given her importance. Three books were too small for a woman of her stature. Compared to at least five volumes of material on extraordinary beauties, it was too little. Normally, there should have been at least fifteen books.

"Don't tell me. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to gather information on her, and the effort and sacrifice it has taken to gather this much? Gathering information on her is too difficult. I've barely scratched the surface. The layers of humanity that surround her are too thick. I'm not one to give up, of course, but I'm also not one to give up……."

"Hmmm, I see."

Ryu-yeon nodded with a look of understanding.

Name: Bingbai Peak Nayarin

Age: 21 years old

Height: ?

Weight: ?

Hair: black

Eyes: Black

Trichotomy: Hurt a lot of people trying to figure it out.

Peculiarities: Self-acknowledged beauty queen of the Heavenly Academy. Research indicates a mild case of autism. The biological granddaughter of the Martial Saint Nie Tian, the Heavenly Thunder Sword God Nie Tian, and a cultivator of the Heavenly Martial Saint Sword Hu. She possesses the White Soul Sword Thunder Heavenly Sword Formation of Martial Lord Nie Bai Tian and the Cold Scarlet Spirit God Sword of Sword Hu, making her the most advanced of the Four Great Sword Gods. Her martial arts level is currently unpredictable.

"Well, he's a tough opponent, to say the least. I'm going to have to give it a shot!"

Apparently, she had no intention of giving up.